Monthly Archives: March 2012

So, I just finished reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins…and oh. my. god! Love!! I see what all the hype’s been about! What a great series! It really sucks you in with it’s post-apocolyptic-modern-Logan’s Run-Battle Royal-ness.

Lots of people are doing looks based on the books, and I too was inspired!

I’ve done a Capital look. I was quite proud of how this one turned out, and it gave me a chance to really play with my BH Cosmetics 120 Palette.

For those who haven’t read the series, the country (Panem) is broken down into 12 Districts, and the Capital. The Capital’s citizens are free, and and enjoy a posh lavish lifestyle with very little concern for anyone outside of the Capital.

They are known for insane style, wild unnatural hair colors, elaborate make up, and they even dye their skin different colors….I had to do it.

I really wanted to do something with bright colors around the eyes, and a dyed skin. Working with the wigs I had, I picked my favorite blue one, and drew colors from there settling on a primary color palette of Red, Blue, and Yellow.

I call this manicure “Girl on Fire” and is inspired by Katniss and her stylist team.

During the 74th game, Katniss mentions her stylists painted flames on her nails…and while this isn’t really flames, it’s a flame fade.

My goal was to use Smoke and Ashes, and make it look like coals glowing. It took 2 attempts for me to get this to it’s current state. I wanted to capture the way a wildfire looks when it’s burning at a distance.

I wanted to use as many colors from the China Glaze Colors of the Capital as I could…

Step 3. Using Riveting (Or another Orange…) get as much polish off the brush as possible, or use a make up sponge and dab the color on the nail, leaving the part closest to your nail bed gold. (See what I meant about Riveting messing with my camera?? You can still see where it should be on the nail however.)

Step 4.

Step 4. Add red just as you did orange. You’ll see now how the color fade into each other.

Step 5

Step 5. This is the hardest one, because Smoke and Ashes is so dark. You want this to look like coals or wood that the fire is burning off of. Be very careful you don’t add too much, try and keep this limited to the nail tip, and if you do make it too high, don’t be afraid to add more red where the two colors meet to blend it out better. Also, don’t be afraid to make short whisps, it’ll look more like sticks burning. You can use black if you don’t have Smoke and Ashes.

Step 6

Step 6. Lastly, using Luxe and Lush (Or another chunky texture coat like Zoya or Finger Paints) plop a few blobs at the tip atop the Smoke and Ashes, this will reflect the oranges and yellows, making Luxe and Lush look like glowing embers. Feel free to extend the flecks up into the red.

I got my hands on some of the new Hunger Games Colors From the Capitol Collection by China Glaze!! Oh SO SO SO excited!!!

Colors From the Capitol

Back to Front, Left to Right:

Riveting, Harvest Moon, Luxe and Lush, and Smoke and Ashes

I absolutely love each and every…no I don’t I don’t like Harvest Moon…why might you ask?

Hmm....

One of these things is just like the other…Pop Quiz! Which one is Harvest Moon?

I knew when I picked this up, that the color seemed very familiar to me somehow…It wasn’t until I got home and dug out my color wheel to add Harvest Moon that I noticed it’s exactly the same shade as In Awe of Amber.

Now, there is a slight difference I noticed upon swatching. Harvest Moon is much more sheer when applied, and takes more coats to become opaque.

IAoA Left HM Right

See how close they are? With another coat or two I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. If you already own In Awe of Amber, I’d avoid getting Harvest Moon. B’ah! I should have gotten Argo! The above are 1 coat each.

Smoke and Ashes

Smoke and Ashes

Oh how I LOVE Smoke and Ashes!! Swoon! It’s a patient leathery black base with teal flecks of glitter packed into it! The finish is smooth and slippery and I JUST LOVE IT!! It’s unfortunately, very hard to photograph because of the ultra shine of it’s finish.

Line Up! Smoke and Ashes, Riveting, and Luxe and Lush

Riveting is a super powerful punch of orange with orange-gold flecks. It’s amazing. The finish is smooth and shiny and lovely. I’m sorry to say I couldn’t get a good swatch of it…the reflective gold glitters were playing havoc with my camera.

Luxe and Lush…Oh who can say enough good things about this textured topper? It’s the middle of the swatch wheel, and looks like shattered glass. When worn over a color, it makes it look chunky and textured with an iridescent shine with out actually being chunky. I love this polish so much I may have to invest in a back up bottle!!

From the China Glaze Site

Oh how I wish I could find Electrify!!

I’ve got a nail art blog coming up using the colors I’ve purchased to create a look inspired by the book series and upcoming movie! I’m waiting until it gets closer to the movie release date to post my Makeup and Nail looks!

So just a heads up…the Nicole OPI Turquoise Texture (Shatter/Crackle) is the same as the regular OPI Turquoise Texture. The only thing I can see different on my nail wheel is their crackle pattern, and if you’ve played with shatter/crackle polishes, you know that’s not even a for sure thing. (Some polishes have large patches with a few crackles, other’s shatter all over the place.) Nicole’s patter crackles, with bigger chunks of crackle polish…maybe. I’d need to do many swatches and compare the two to be sure.

Rainbow in the S-Klyie surprised me. I hadn’t planned on getting any of the Kardashian collection, but since it was a gift I wasn’t going to send it back. I do like it, quite a bit in comparison to the other polishes in the collection that I found dull. This is chock-full of rainbow glitters with larger hexagon shaped glitters. It reminds me of a birthday party in a bottle. I like it a lot, and I’m sure I’ll be using it over other polishes in the future. It’s so fun and festive. It’s strait glitter, no iridescent sheen, just strait up solid colored glitter.The base polish is clear.

Love Your Life is a iridescent glitter with large pink hearts in a clear base. It looks like a sheer pink base in the bottle, but it’s not. I’m…m’eh about this one. It’s cute for Valentine’s Day, Sweetest Day, or an Anniversary Dinner or something like that. The glitter doesn’t really pack much of a punch, and is barely there when swatched.

Shuffle the Deck is a chunky glitter topper, although I’m sure it could be worn on it’s own. Clear base polish. Non-iridescent glitter in Black, Red, and Silver.

Jewelry Heist is a little different then Shuffle the Deck. It has the same hexagon glitter chunks but in Pink and Silver with the addition of smaller Green, Silver, and Blue jewel toned baby glitter flecks.

Now for the odd one out…My Saturn Broke Down. Iridescent glitter flecks that flash blue, silver, green, and teal in a jelly base of blue with even smaller flecks of silver glitter. This is one of those polishes that will never be opaque, so don’t try. It’s meant to be sheer and wet looking.

Lastly…There isn’t too much to say about Permission to Proceed. It’s a matte Neon Green. The thing with neon colors, is they’ll always be rather sheer unless you use a base coat of white, so I suggest doing just that.

No really! When I got off the pill about 10 years ago, my body completely flipped out on me. I started growing hair in places I shouldn’t. After talking to a few people, I realized I am not alone in this problem. It’s quite common.

So since then, I’ve been on a never ending quest to find a good hair remover to actually get the job done. Now, I’ve since found a fantastic hair remover for the body…but for the face? I haven’t been so lucky.

I’ve pretty much tried everything, and have been met with failure each and every time. Facial hair is so very course, none of the creams made for women seem to do the job.

On to my most recent attempt at making my life easier…

Pure Scent-sation

I spent some time looking through different depilatorie creams before settling on this new release by Sally Hansen…”Pure Scent-sation hair remover”. Which claims it’s scentless…Woo! Scentless…well…it’s “Virtually Odor Free” according to the box.

I’ll admit, it stinks a lot less then most hair-remover creams. It smells faintly like Nair. The smell isn’t very strong at all, but it is still there. I actually think I like the scented hair better to be honest.

Anywho, so I open the box and…

Product Failure

Sad. Very. The pump was broken, and completely fell off the little tub of cream.

I wasn’t about to be discouraged, and I pried the top of the tub off…I hate returning things THAT much. It was actually pretty easy to do, and if after this review you decide to try this product, I suggest you do the same. You’ll be able to scoop out all the cream that way, and get more product for your dollar…and seriously? This is like 8 bucks to start with for once little ounce…so best get all you can out of it.

Having gotten the tub open, I followed the directions and even used the little spatula that came with it…and waited 3 minutes to test. Nothing. I wasn’t shocked, it almost always takes much longer then the suggested time to work.

Waited the full 8 minutes…

Nothing.

Well I shouldn’t say -nothing-. My skin did tingle, and it still does. (Not burning, tingling.) It does feel smooth, but the coarse hair is still there. The only hair it removed were the very fine hairs. Women plagued with facial hair aren’t really concerned about the baby-fine hair no one can see. So seriously? Fail.

I’m not impressed with this product, it’s pretty much like everything else I’ve ever tried.

So to recap.

1. Unless you have baby fine hair, avoid this.

2. Pop open the tub to use rather then using the pump to get the full product.

3. It smells a bit like Nair, only not so strongly.

4. 1oz of product for 8 dollars doesn’t seem worth it.

5. It does leave your skin smooth, if still hairy.

I’ll be returning this product, it’s not worth keeping since it’s broken AND doesn’t do what it’s supposed to.

Edit: I’d like to add…not even 24 hours later all those fine little hairs that it DID remove grew back. Grr.

I’m going to be trying Softsheen Carson’s Magic Razorless Hair Remover Cream as suggested by a student. After many failed attempts at tracking it down in local stores, I gave up and checked drugstore.com. Indeed I did find it! And lucky for me…Drugstore.com is having a 20% off promo sale!

Just enter BEAUTY20 at check out. Shipping is very reasonable, and they also accept paypal at check out for those of you squimish about entering your credit card info. But hurry, the promo goes until Midnight tonight!

“Creates a sheer pink protein rich coating which instantly strengthens, seals, and protects natural nails so they can grow long and strong.”

Ok.

So I tried this product for a few weeks…And you know, it does do what it says. My nails were nice and hard, and it was most definitely harder to break them. I don’t recall having one break the entire time I used this product.

I wouldn’t use a base coat with this, it’s the one thing I didn’t like. It was very thick with the base, so leave this by it’s self with a polish and a top coat.

The other thing I didn’t care for, was it seemed to make the polish take forever to dry.